{"id":348560,"date":"2026-06-10T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=348560"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:41:00","slug":"eng-vs-nz-2026-test-series-ben-stokes-faces-retirement-speculation-after-pub-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/eng-vs-nz-2026-test-series-ben-stokes-faces-retirement-speculation-after-pub-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"ENG vs NZ 2026 Test Series: Ben Stokes Faces Retirement Speculation After Pub Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Stokes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">England captain Ben Stokes may consider retiring from cricket following his nightclub controversy after the opening Test against Recent Zealand at Lord\u2019s, which concluded on Sunday, June 7. The experienced all-rounder was reportedly involved in a bar altercation an evening after guiding England to a 115-run win and a 1-0 lead within the three-match series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The England and Wales Cricket Board is investigating the matter, and Stokes is anticipated to relinquish the captaincy. The 35-year-old became England\u2019s full-time Test skipper in 2022 and has led the side to 24 victories in 43 Tests, despite recent setbacks, including a 1-4 Ashes loss in Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Ben Stokes endured a disappointing performance within the Lord\u2019s Test against Recent Zealand, managing just 12 runs across each innings and taking figures of 1\/34 from seven overs with the ball. The left-hander has also struggled badly with the bat in Test cricket over the past yr, averaging only 26.31 in 19 innings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">With the ECB closely examining the recent bar controversy, Stokes\u2019 tenure as captain appears to be nearing its end, while uncertainty continues to surround his future in cricket.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cHe\u2019s an Honest Lad\u201d- Steve Harmison Backs Ben Stokes<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Former England fast bowler Steve Harmison got here out in support of Ben Stokes following the nightclub controversy, saying the England skipper deserves support until all the small print of the incident turn into clear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s2\">\u201cWhen the total facts come to light, then I believe we are able to make judgement. Ben\u2019s an important kid. He\u2019s an honest lad and he\u2019s anyone who will know whether he\u2019s overstepped the boundaries or not. \u2019m fully behind him and he\u2019ll do whatever must be the best thing to be done in this case once the facts come out. So I\u2019ve got no issue with that. I\u2019ve known Ben since he was 15-years-old,\u201d said Harmison (via <span class=\"s3\">Talksport<\/span>).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">England\u2019s second Test against Recent Zealand at The Oval is scheduled to start on June 17, but reports indicate that Stokes is unlikely to guide the side as captain in that match.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Get the most recent cricket news here, like us on <a href=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/cricfitupdate?wtsid=rdr_0r9TyTtGMzhJUSzAh\">Facebook<\/a>, and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CricFit\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/cricfit?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">Instagram <\/a> for more such updates.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Stokes England captain Ben Stokes may consider retiring from cricket following his nightclub controversy after the opening Test against Recent Zealand at Lord\u2019s, which concluded on Sunday, June 7. The experienced all-rounder was reportedly involved in a bar altercation an evening after guiding England to a 115-run win and a 1-0 lead within the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":348561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20675],"tags":[5911,3511,21879,3619,20955,2411,4216,9714,5385,4344],"class_list":["post-348560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-ben","tag-controversy","tag-eng","tag-faces","tag-pub","tag-retirement","tag-series","tag-speculation","tag-stokes","tag-test"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348563,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348560\/revisions\/348563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}